DIY Fitness Cruise

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With our impending acquisition, there was some buzz for a while about whether or not we’d get to roll our vacation days over to next year. I have a whole bunch of vacation left, so that was a big deal for me! However, with my current project, I can’t just take off for two weeks – and anyway, I’ve always preferred multiple shorter vacations to one long one. I started tentatively planning a few long weekends, but then got word that we would in fact be able to roll our vacation days over to 2011. Hooray!

However, having already started investigating potential travel destinations, I was too intrigued by all the options to just scrap the whole plan. I really wanted what I would call a “detox getaway”: basically my version of going to a fitness spa without having to drop $3,000 (or more). I considered a few options to the DIY fitness spa approach: getting a hotel in Miami near an Equinox gym and then spending all day taking their amazing classes; going to an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean and taking fitness classes/doing yoga on the beach; or taking a cruise. However, when I found a cruise on Celebrity Cruise lines (which my research showed has a “spa cafe” on board with all healthy foods!), going from Miami to Key West to Cozumel and back, and all for only $300 – I was sold.

Originally, I was trying to find friends to go with… but it seemed that everyone was unavailable. However, one of my coworkers on my current project has a habit of taking a solo vacation every year to a different exotic destination (this year is Istanbul). Inspired by her independence, I figured that if she can go to a foreign country for a week by herself, I can certainly go on a four day solo Caribbean cruise! Besides, there will be no one to tempt me with alcohol – I can just rest, relax, and get in great shape.

So the week before Thanksgiving, while everyone else is stretching their stomachs in preparation for the feast ahead, I’m going to be trying to shrink mine. I want to spend at least 2 hours/day hitting the gym, and one of the days of the cruise, I even want to try to run a marathon on the track on the top deck. How cool would that be?! I think I may even put out a little handmade sign, telling the other passengers what I’m doing and asking them to cheer for me :)

But as a reward for all my hard work getting in shape, my plan is to celebrate in Cozumel with a tequila tour and a horseback ride on the beach, as featured on The Travel Channel with Samantha Brown. After all, you can’t take the “Absolut” out of Absolut(ly) Fit!

Comments

Don’t want to rain your parade (or marathon). I don’t know about the Celebrity ship layout, but on Royal Caribbean the running track shares space with the second deck of pool chairs. So on a sunny day, people just seem to love pulling those chairs all over the run track. It’s OK if you get out early before the sun worshippers show up. On the last cruise I went on, some of us runners took to running on a lower deck that had more space. But it was over people’s cabins, and I felt bad pounding on their ceilings for more than a short run.

And the gym can be filled with lots of ‘I never go to the gym, but I’m eating too much on this cruise so I better work out and the gym is free’ types of folks. This is another timing issue to deal with, but I never did find a time where the gym wasn’t pretty full. Maybe dinner time?

You’ll definitely have a great time at the spa, this is where cruises really shine.